Co-benefit Analysis Of Greenhouse Gas Reduction And Air Pollution Control

Greenhouse gases （GHGs） and some other air pollutants to a large extent derive from thesame sources like——fossil fuel combustion. The energy balance will be changed by thegrowing concentrations of GHGs or other air pollutants, such as black carbon andtropospheric ozone. Besides, climate change can be linked to air quality throughatmospheric chemical reaction. Athough climate change is closely associated with airpollution, problems, currently they have seldom been taken into consideration simultaneouslyin scientific studies or policy making. As one of the most prosperous economic zone underthe national reform and opening-up policy, Shenzhen has achieved steady and rapid economicdevelopment, while accompanied by increasing amounts of GHGs and air pollutants. Giventhe limited economic resources of Shenzhen, implementing co-control measures and study theco-benefits of GHGs reduction and air pollution control are essential to address both GHGsemission and local air pollution. In this study, baseline and mitigation scenarios were set up.Underlying the projection of fossil fuel consuming data, analyses of the impact of climatechange policies （CCP） on the air pollutants emission as well as the pollution control policies（PCP） on the GHGs emission were carried out.Firstly, based on the collected data and emission factors, the GHGs and the air pollutantsemission inventories were developed respectively for the base year （2008）. The resultsshowed that the emissions of CO₂, CH₄and N₂O were43.9million tons,8.7kilotons and0.8kilotons respectively, while the emissions of SO₂, NO_Xand PM₁₀were74.2kilotons,189.3kilotons and19.6kilotons. Power plant had the highest CO₂and SO_2emissions, whiletransportation was the largest contributor for both NO_Xand PM₁₀.Secondly, baseline scenario and the related assumptions were described. Emissions ofGHGs and air pollutants were estimated depending on the predicted data for the target year（2015）. The results indicated that the emissions of CO₂, CH₄and N₂O were63.1milliontons,11.5kilotons and1.1kilotons, which increased by43.8%,31.7%and42.4%respectivelycomparing to the base year. The emissions of SO₂, NO_Xand PM₁₀were106.2kilotons,273.8kilotons and29.4kilotons, ascended by43.1%,44.7%and50.4%individually.Thirdly, according to the energy and the environmental policies, as well as the economicdevelopment in the future for Shenzhen, various scenarios were designed and the emissions ofGHGs and air pollutants were calculated. Then the co-benefits of different economicgrowing were analyzed. The results demonstrated that climate change policies （CCP） underdifferent scenarios can effectively reduced not only8.6²0.3million tons of CO_2e（CO₂ equivalent）, but also25⁴3kilotons of SO₂,27⁶1kilotons of NO_Xand2.7⁵.9kilotons ofPM₁₀, which was regarded as positive co-benefits. Among the climate change policies,co-benefits from switching oil to natural gas in power plants were the most significant, whichnot only resulted in1.0¹.4million tons of CO_2ereduction,but also reduced8.7¹2.1kilotonsof SO₂,9.0¹2.4kilotons of NO_Xand1.0¹.4kilotons of PM₁₀. Besides, flue gasdesulphurization （scrubbers）, as one of the pollution control policies （PCP）, contributed to2.7³.8kilotons decrease in SO_2emissions, while led to an increase of1.0¹.4million tons ofCO_2e. This was regarded as negative co-benefits. In addition, on the basis of differenthypothesis, power plant will be the largest co-benefit sector, while transportation should bethe focus for future control.Finally, some suggestions on GHGs reduction and air pollution control were proposed.Measures, such as improving energy efficiency and fuel economy, optimizing energy structure,promoting public transportation in priority and encouraging green commuting, are all helpfulways to achieve co-benefits.